The Evolution of Human Resource
Management
Sandy Reed, SPHR, and Myrna L. Gusdorf, MBA, SPHR
Learning Objectives
• By the end of this module, students will:
> Recognize the interrelationship of social, political and
economic issues in the history of American labor.
> Link the evolution of contemporary human resource
(HR) practices to events in labor history.
> Assess the effect of current conditions on the
practice of HR management.
> Formulate hypotheses regarding future HR practices.
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The Early Years of American Labor
Session 1
The Origins of Labor: The Colonial Era
• Labor for the New World:
> Indentured servants
> Slaves
> Religious minorities
> Political dissidents
> Convicts
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Society and Work in the Colonial Era
• Northern colonies:
> Independent craft workers
> Tradesmen
> Merchants
> Farmers
• Southern colonies:
> Agriculture
> Slaves
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The Revolutionary Era
• Emerging ideology of independence.
• Wide acceptance of Common Sense by Thomas
Paine.
• Some efforts to organize labor:
> In 1778, New York City journeyman printers unite and
gain increase in wages.
> In 1785, New York City shoemakers strike for three
weeks.
• Adam Smith published Wealth of Nations in 1776.
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Growth of the Nation: Late 1700s–Early 1800s
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Agriculture vs. industrialization.
Growth of textile industry in the north.
Invention of the cotton gin.
Increased importation of slaves in the South.
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Early Union Activities
• Union agitators were blacklisted.
• Cordwainers case of 1805:
> Guilty of conspiracy.
> Injurious to trade.
• Conspiracy charges reversed in 1842:
> Commonwealth v. Hunt.
• Movement for a 10-hour workday.
• By 1830, one-third of New England’s labor force
were children under the age of 16.
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The Civil War and Late 1800s
• Civil War causes:
> Slavery.
> Reluctance of Northern workers to compete against
slave labor.
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Dramatic industrial growth in the North.
Growth of trade unionism.
Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
Passage of Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
Sharecropping replaces slavery.
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End of the 1800s
• Public support for free land became the Homestead
Act of 1862.
• Klondike stampede.
• Movement from farm to city.
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
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A New Century
Not long after
the 20th century began...
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Labor Unrest
• Increased industrialization resulted in labor
unrest.
• Employment-at-will doctrine.
• Blacklists.
• Yellow-dog contracts.
• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
• Work accidents’ shocking toll.
• Lochner v. New York.
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Labor Unrest
• 1910: Los Angeles Times building bombed during a
strike.
• Secretary-treasurer of the International Union of
Bridge and Structural Iron Workers arrested in the
bombing.
• Arrest said to be an attack on unions in particular
and labor in general.
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Labor Unrest
• Sweatshop labor.
• Triangle Waist Company Fire of 1911:
> 146 young women and girls died because the
factory’s doors were locked to prevent theft.
• Catalyst for government involvement.
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Commission on Industrial Relations: The Walsh
Report Findings
• Lumber workers in the Northwest were paid 20
cents an hour for a 10-hour day.
• Seasonal unemployment affected tens of
thousands of people in Pacific Coast cities. Only
the fortunate averaged more than a meal a day.
• Migrant laborers in California worked in
temperatures up to 105 degrees on farms where
growers refused to supply them with water.
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Discussion Questions
• Why did the government get involved with labor
conditions?
• Of the Walsh Report’s findings, what parallels can
be made to the modern-day workplace?
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The New Century: From the Roaring
20s to 1950s Prosperity
Session 2
Work and Management in the New Century
• Large-scale immigration swells the U.S. labor force.
• Industrial era in full swing.
• Fredrick Taylor and the concept of scientific
management.
• Henry Ford and the moving assembly line.
• World War I and the resulting labor shortage.
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Politics and the Courts
What was happening to labor politically and in the
courts?
> States passed child labor laws, but the laws lacked
enforcement.
> The Supreme Court upheld yellow-dog contracts.
> Court injunctions were used to break strikes.
> Business rights were defined as “property.”
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The Roaring Twenties
• Industrialization and urbanization.
• Mass-production, prosperity and consumer goods.
• Ford: Eight-hour workday, five days per week, $5 per
day.
• Prohibition and bathtub gin.
• Charles Lindberg and Babe Ruth.
• Rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
• Immigration restrictions.
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1920s: What about labor?
• Steel industry eliminates the 12-hour workday.
• Hawthorne studies.
• Human relations movement in management.
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The Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression
• October 1929: Stock market crash.
• 1933: Stocks down 80 percent.
> 25 percent unemployment.
> Drought – farm migration.
> Foreclosure and homelessness.
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1930s Depression and Recovery
• Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932:
> Prohibited anti-union injunctions.
> Prohibited yellow-dog contracts.
• National Labor Relations Act of 1935:
> Right to form unions.
> Right to collective bargaining.
• The rise of the industrial relations professional.
• Continued union violence.
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The New Deal and Economic Recovery
• Social Security Act of 1935.
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):
> Minimum wage - $.25/hour.
> 40-hour workweek.
> Overtime at time-and-one-half.
> Standards for child labor.
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1940 and World War II
• 1939: War begins in Europe.
• 1940: First American peacetime draft.
• December 7, 1941: Attack at Pearl Harbor. America
enters the war.
• Labor shortage.
• Women and African Americans flood defense
industries.
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After the War
• 1945: End of World War II.
• Growing unrest between labor and management.
• 1947: Labor-Management Relations Act (TaftHartley Act):
> Restricted union activities.
> Allowed for “right-to-work” states.
• Women fired as soldiers return to work.
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What About Management?
• Specialization of functions within organizations.
• Professional industrial relations worker.
• Research:
> Taylor’s “scientific management.”
> The Hawthorne studies.
> Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
• Labor no longer merely a factor of production.
• The rise of the personnel administrator.
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Managing People
• Education for industrial relations:
> 1945: University of Minnesota established the Industrial
Relations Center.
> 1946: Cornell University established the School of
Industrial and Labor Relations.
• Personnel management organizations:
> 1945 – American Society of Training Directors.
• Changed to American Society for Training and
Development in 1968.
> 1948 – American Society for Personnel Administration.
• Changed to Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) in 1989.
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The 1950s and Prosperity
• Employment at will.
• Unionization: 35 percent of private-industry
employees.
• Peacetime industry:
> Housing.
> Consumer goods.
• Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of
1959:
> Financial disclosure for unions.
> Union members’ bill of rights.
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Life in the 1950s
• Television.
• Technology and science:
> 1951: Univac (Universal Automatic Computer).
> 1957: Launch of Sputnik.
• 1954: Brown v. the Board of Education.
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What Do You Think?
• Between the Roaring 20s and the post-war
prosperity of the 50s, what event do you think had
the most effect on HR? Why? What still carries over
to today’s HR practices?
• What parallels do you see between this period and
contemporary times?
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American Labor Civil Rights and
Contemporary HR
Session 3
1960s and Civil Rights
• Racial unrest.
• Civil Rights Act:
> Protection from discrimination.
> Protected classes.
• Equal Pay Act:
> Ended gender discrimination in compensation.
• Affirmative Action.
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act:
> Protected ages 40–65.
• Evolving human resources.
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Life in the 1960s
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1962: Rachael Carson’s book Silent Spring.
1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
1965: American troops sent to South Vietnam.
1966: Medicare is enacted.
1969: Two American astronauts walk on the moon.
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1970s Employment Law
• Legislation
> 1970: Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
> 1970: Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
> 1974: Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA)
> 1978: ADEA amendment
> 1978: Pregnancy discrimination protection
• Case Law
> 1971: Griggs v. Duke Power
> 1978: Concept of sexual harassment
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Life in the 1970s
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Economic woes.
Oil embargo and gas shortage.
Environmental concerns.
Feminist movement.
Roe v. Wade.
U.S. troops come home from Vietnam.
Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act
of 1974.
• 1976: The nation’s bicentennial.
• Apple introduces first consumer computer.
• 1978: HRCI begins certifications for HR
professionals.
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Working and Legislation in the 1980s
• 1981: Air traffic controller strike.
• Economic distress:
> Mass layoffs.
> Savings and loan crisis.
> Stock market plunged 22 percent on Black Monday.
• 1985: Consolidated Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act (COBRA).
• 1988: Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act (WARN).
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Life in the 1980s
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1986: Another amendment to ADEA.
1986: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson.
1986: Immigration Reform and Control Act.
1988: Employee Polygraph Protection Act.
1989: ASPA becomes Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM).
• Erosion of the employment-at-will doctrine.
• Microsoft introduces MS/DOS.
• The emergence of AIDS in society and in the
workplace.
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Employment Legislation in the 1990s
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1990: Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.
1990: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
1991: Revision of the Civil Rights Act.
1993: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
1994: Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).
• 1996: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act.
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Life in the 1990s
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Increasing workplace protection for employees.
Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings.
The Gulf War continued.
Rise of the dot-com industry.
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The New Millennium
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Technology.
Privacy.
9/11: Terrorism and homeland security.
Immigration and diversity.
Economic conditions.
Rising costs of health insurance.
Globalization and offshoring.
Impending retirement of Baby Boomers.
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The Evolving Role of Human Resource
Management
• Early labor:
> No human resource management.
• Onset of industry:
> Manage factors of production.
• Unions:
> Industrial relations professional.
• End of WWII:
> Peacetime industry and prosperity.
> Personnel administrator.
• Civil Rights and Litigation:
> Human resource manager / compliance
• Global Business:
> Strategic human resource management
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Current Business Issues and the Effect on HR
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Technology changes
Privacy
Workplace security
Globalization; offshoring
Immigration
AIDS epidemic
Aging workforce
Employment regulation
Litigation
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What About the Contemporary HR Practitioner?
“One now reads of six varieties of leadership, four
approaches to negotiation, and thirty-four personality
types that the shrewd practitioner of human resources
should discern.”
Gardner (2006)
“The days of simply maintaining personnel files and
advising on hiring, firing and compensation are long
gone for HR professionals. Today they fulfill a variety of
roles that require knowledge and competencies in
areas that were foreign to them in the past.”
Salvatore et al. (2005)
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What Do You Think?
• Why is the future of HR so closely related to the
political, social and economic events of American
society?
• Which of the events reviewed do you believe had
the greatest influence on the workforce as we know
it today? Why? What other events could be
included?
• Which has had the greatest influence on the
practice of HR? Why?
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